A recovered 25-year-old report reveals a sickening list of concerns raised by boarding pupils at a school run by a man later described as a "fixated paedophile".

A report released from council archives last week documents deeply troubling behaviour by now-disgraced head Robin Lindsay.

It includes accounts of him interfering with male boarding students and how he tried to dismiss a pupil's allegation of indecent assault as a dream.

Following a Freedom of Information request by this website, Dorset County Council has released the report of an inspection carried out by its social services department in 1993.

Former Sherborne Prep head teacher Robin Lindsay, described by an inquiry as a fixated paedophile (Image: Courtesy of ITV’s Exposure)

But a second report, carried out in 1997, said to be "damning in the extreme", has been either lost or destroyed, the council said.

The inspection was carried out between February 8, 1993 and March 8 the same year, with the inspectors raising a number of serious concerns.

What the pupils told inspectors in 1993

At least nine boys at the school spoke to inspectors about Lindsay's behaviours. They voiced concerns including:

The headmaster supervised their showering most evenings

The headmaster watched them while they were in a state of undress

The headmaster discouraged them from covering their bodies if they became embarrassed

The headmaster insisted on them showering in a large group so that their bodies touched

The headmaster sometimes hugged them tightly and smelt unpleasantly of cigar smoke

They sometimes woke up in the mornings feeling cold and found the Headmaster sitting on their beds, having pulled down their bedcovers. The headmaster would be sitting watching them in a way that made them feel uneasy.

The headmaster bounced up and down on boys or their beds

The headmaster had invited boys into his bed during a skiing trip, and into his bed in his room at the school

The headmaster often went into their dormitories at night, and asked 'is anyone awake'. If they were, he sat on their beds and rubbed them on the head or back.

The headmaster went about the hotel in scant clothing during the ski trip and invited groups of boys into his room to discuss the next days activities while he was dressing

Boys did not want to enter the hotel swimming pool when the headmaster was in the pool, because they disliked his behaviour in the school.

Boys felt they could not tell their matron about the behaviour because they felt she would support the headmaster. Others said they could not tell their parents because they might not be believed

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The dream and the intruder

Inspectors were told that in 1991, a boarder at the school complained to police he had been indecently assaulted during the night in his dormitory. He had originally told the headmaster, who dismissed his complaint as a dream.

Robin Lindsay, described as a "fixated paedophile" (Image: ITV Exposure)

When questioned about it, Lindsay told the inspector that a known individual had been entering the school, and he had attempted to take steps to prevent this.

The pupil told police the intruder was male, but wearing a wig, and smelt strongly of cigar smoke.

Staff concerns

Staff at the school told inspectors they had seen the headmaster wear pyjamas while teaching pupils, while the matron of the girl's dormitory recalled seeing the headmaster cross a corridor outside the boys dorm with his trousers unfastened.

Many of the staff were concerned he was placing himself in potentially compromising circumstances, but none suggested he had behaved improperly towards children.

How did Robin Lindsay 'get away with it'?

The grim account of Lindsay's abuse has some troubling parallels with abuse by football coach Barry Bennell sentenced in February 2018, to 31 years in prison for 43 charges of historic sexual abuse.

In both cases the abusers had:

almost absolute power and influence in their professional circle;

virtually limitless access to large numbers of young boys;

groomed adults around their victims, including parents, to dismiss the notion of wrongdoing;

cultivate and expolit a culture of fear, isolation and confusion among their victims.

It is probably for these reasons that it has taken four decades for the full horror of what happened to be disclosed.

Even when an judge-led enquiry branded Lindsay a fixated paedophile and he was banned from working with children, parents and supporters rallied to his support - explaining away his actions as "eccentric" or acceptable.

Although Lindsay is now dead, and Sherborne Preparatory School says it is a completely new and separate entity to Lindsay's "private fiefdom", pre 1990s survivors have many questions for authorities about whether they could or should have done more.

The parents

Concerned by what the pupils had told them, the inspectors contacted child protection services. A number of boys were interviewed at their homes - some parents consented to their children being interviewed, others refused access to them.

The majority of parent interviewed expressed confidence in Lindsay and his care and concern for pupils.

Pupils did not have free access to telephones, which were either locked away, or in school offices.

Corporal punishment

Lindsay admitted he had used corporal punishment in the past but would not use it without parental consent, and not in the case of girls. He did not keep a log of what punishments had been handed down, or what for.

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Police investigations

The report also confirms that the Department for Education and police department had records regarding complaints about Lindsay's behaviour towards boarders in 1974, 1982, 1985 and 1986. More complainants came forward in 2014 and 2015, shortly before Lindsay's death.

The inspectors said they had "serious reservations" about Lindsay's suitability as headmaster and recommended that he move out of boarding school accommodation and cease to be directly involved in the personal care of the children.

Lindsay's behaviour in the decades before he was forced to leave Sherborne Preparatory School in 1999 has been investigated in recent months after survivors of abuse came forward to Somerset Live and ITV.

Sherborne Prep School response to ITV Exposure documentary

Somerset Live contacted the school on Monday (February 19) for a response to the content of the documentary Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame.

Nigel Jones, the current chairman of governors at Sherborne Preparatory School said it is a completely different body to the school owned and operated by Robin Lindsay.

He said: "The preparatory school was formed as a charitable trust when he (Robin Lindsay) was removed from the school. Governors were appointed.

"It acquired the school from him in 1998.

"It is a completely different financial, legal and governance organisation.

"We don't know what happened because we are not in any way party to things that went on.

"If the allegations are true, they are totally abhorrent and we accept that.

"It is very difficult when we are approached by people. It happened 20 years ago.

"I have huge sympathy for anyone who has been assaulted.

"If there is something we can do to help, we are happy to talk to them."

"Safeguarding of children is the number one priority in the school."

"We have a nominated safeguarding governor.

"We have a strict policy and follow it to the letter, which includes talking to the regulatory authorities, police and charity commission."

Were you affected by abuse at Sherborne Prep School? You can contact us in confidence by e-mail at laura.linham@midsomnews.co.uk

You can read the full redacted report released by Dorset County Council below:

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